Short Features

Confessions of a Heavy Thinker is a short feature created by Angus Stocking, whose intention is to loosen the listener's grip on fixed beliefs, so that more pleasant beliefs can be selected and implemented. In addition to Confessions, Angus also publishes essays on his blog, OtherBS.com, and has contributed essays to BoingBoing.net. His Kindle ebook, also titled Confessions of a Heavy Thinker, is available on Amazon for a very reasonable sum.

Each weekday, the Pulse of the Planet radio series provides its listeners with a two-minute sound portrait of Planet Earth, tracking the rhythms of nature, culture and science worldwide, blending interviews with extraordinary natural sound.

2-minute commentaries by Jim Hightower, America’s most popular populist. He is a best-selling author, public speaker, and political sparkplug who learned from his daddy, W. F. Hightower, that “Everybody does better when everybody does better.” Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner (which put him square in the crosshairs of corporate agribusiness,) he has long chronicled the ongoing democratic struggles by America’s ordinary people against rule by its plutocratic elites. You can read more about Jim at JimHightower.com.

Every Boy Scout knows how to find the North Star; just follow the two stars on the end of the Big Dipper’s bowl, and voila… you’re there! The North Star might be the most famous star in the entire sky, yet also the most misunderstood.

Now is a great time to gaze into our dark skies and to contemplate the Milky Way, our home galaxy. After twilight ends on late September evenings, the luminous band of the Milky Way stretches from the southwest to overhead and beyond, into the northeastern sky. To the southwest in the direction of Sagittarius, the Milky Way’s clouds of stars and glowing gas are brightest. This is the direction of the galactic center, where stars are most concentrated. As we trace the Milky Way from overhead in Cygnus and into Perseus in the no

September 8th marked the beginning of NASA’s launch window for OSIRIS-Rex, a mission to study an asteroid called Bennu and return a sample of the asteroid’s surface material to Earth for further analysis. This mission is particularly exciting because it will not only give us a peek back in time towards the beginnings of our planet and our solar system as a whole, but also might provide clues as to how life began here on Earth. (Ed.

If you look to the east after sunset, you will notice a bright, reddish-orange object. This is the planet Mars, 4th rock from the Sun. Less than one month ago, Mars was at opposition. This means that it is directly opposite from the Sun, as we view it. This also means that it is very bright, because it is reflecting light directly back to us. Opposition is the planetary equivalent of a full moon.

The diameter of Mars is about 4200 miles, compared to Earth’s diameter of about 8,000 miles and its mass is just 11% of Earth’s. On May 30, Mars was 47 million miles from Earth.

Imagine… You are on an exo-planet circling a star in the Hydra Galaxy Cluster. Your powerful telescope zeroes in on a planet 150 million light-years away. The planet is called Earth, but you won’t be seeing 2016 human inhabitants, you will be seeing images of dinosaurs… Images carried on light that left the Earth 150 million years ago.

The planet Mercury is the closest planet to our Sun. Its average distance from the Sun is only 35 million miles. Mercury has the fastest orbital speed in the Solar System…88 days. Perhaps this is why the planet is named after the speedy messenger to the Roman gods!

Comets are small, icy and rocky bodies that orbit the Sun. Many comets have highly elongated orbits that extend to the farthest reaches of our solar system, out to a sizeable fraction of the distances to the nearest stars. Out there, in what astronomers have termed the Oort Cloud, a vast collection of comets is thought to exist.

Typically, meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through particle clouds left by the passage of a comet. The particles burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a brief streak of light. The particles can range in size from dust to 33 feet in diameter.

The terms “meteor,” “meteoroid,” and “meteorite” are related, but are not identical terms.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park has long been known for some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America. The Gunnison River has sculpted this vertical wilderness of rock, water, and sky. A grand piece of this wild landscape includes the pristine dark skies.

What is that brilliant light in the sky? If you are an early riser you may see a jewel in the east. Called the “morning star” as well as the “evening star” by cultures the world over, this light flickers a bit less than stars. It is not a star but the planet Venus. Had you looked about a month ago, Venus would have been the “evening star,” ripe for viewing by night owls. This planet is often referred to as our “sister” planet.

I remember being bundled in a blanket and being taken outside into the chill midnight air as a child. I would be sleepy and warm, held in my father’s arms. He would extend his arm and point, “look at the sky!”

By definition, Astronomy is a natural science which is the study of celestial objects.

It all started with humans looking at the night sky with just their eyes, and contemplating all those gleaming lights above them.

Today there is the Hubble Space Telescope which brings us brilliant photos of far off galaxies, space probes reaching out and sending back images of planets, asteroids and comets, and huge land based telescopes, that since Galileo’s time have grown from 1.5 centimeters, to 1 meter, to 10 meters in diameter.

On February 18th, 1930, a 24-year-old Kansas farmhand-turned-astronomer made a discovery that forever changed our understanding of the Solar System. On that evening, Clyde Tombaugh, who had grown up on family farms in Illinois and Kansas, discovered Pluto. Tombaugh’s discovery nearly doubled the size of the known solar system overnight.

Spring is quickly shifting into summer. For us at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, this means that the busiest visitation days of the year are just around the corner. Folks from all over the world will soon fill the visitor center, planning adventures into the canyon and asking about park wildlife. Rangers will begin presenting geology walks along the rim and talks out at Chasm View. It’s an exciting time of year in the park.